The revulsion against Airtel Zero is soaring high in the country. Sachin Bansal, Co-Founder, Flipkart seems to be share that wrath when he tweeted in support of Airtel Zero. As soon as he tweeted in support of Airtel Zero, net neutrality supporters in the country downvoted Flipkart app on Android and iOS app review with a ‘one star’ rating. Many of the reviews had comments mentioning the net neutrality problem. The online retailer was reputedly one of the partners of Airtel Zero. There are only few prominent personalities who came out with support for Airtel Zero.
Sanjal Bansal’s tweets read,
“I’m for net neutrality. I spend time/money helping start-ups in India. Will never support things which suffocates innovation.” (1/3)
“0 rated apps for limited time doesn’t go against #NetNeutrality”. Costs/competition are very high. Can’t be sustained for long..”(2/3)
“0 rating only reduces data costs for users. Fears of a telecom big brother emerging are unfonded. Choice wins. Always. “(3/3)
Airtel’s Zero marketing platform allows users to gain a free access of apps, of that of participating app developers. Although this may sound like a free service, subscribers will get access only to those services/apps which have struck a deal with the telecos. A big player developer will not find it an issue to pay telecos for data charges incurred by the users. But, this will affect the start-up apps, who cannot afford teleco's data rates.
